Giuliana Lestini was a student during the war and worked for the Italian state social insurance institution.
After German troops invaded Italy on September 8, 1943, Giuliana Lestini’s father Pietro worked with the priest at the Church of San Gioacchino to provide shelter there for men seeking refuge, including several Jews. Their hiding place in the basement did not seem safe enough, so the men moved into an empty space in the church attic on October 25, 1943. This space was walled up at the beginning of November. Along with her father and the nun Marguerite Bernes, Giuliana Lestini took care of providing food for the men.
After the war, Lestini completed her studies and became a teacher, eventually a school principal. In the years that followed, she worked as a volunteer commemorating Nazi crimes in Italy. In 1993 Giuliana Lestini published a book of her memoirs and those of the people rescued in San Gioacchino. In 1995 she and her father Pietro were honored by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.